Sir, – Robert Grant ("Philosophy in our schools is a necessity", Education Opinion, October 21st) argues his case well. He is not the first to argue it. But there is absolutely no hope of his wish being implemented. How could it happen when contemporary Irish culture resolutely values only one kind of creative writing, namely fiction?
Aosdána is the living proof of this. This state-sponsored encouragement of creativity admits even photographers to membership but excludes philosophers. The recent institution of a Laureate for Irish Fiction awarding €150,000 to the winner is merely the latest evidence of this resolute cultural bias.
Week in, week out, the absence of books by Irish philosophers at home and abroad from the book-review pages hammers home that the administrators of Irish culture have no regard for such work (if truth be told, they fear it). They have brought about that in common parlance “Irish writing” means only Irish fiction.
Our acquiescence in this bias, unique in Europe and reflected in the shallowness of Irish public discourse, shows that it accords with our nature as a nation loving the artful creation of made-up stories, fearful of minds probing and presenting the realities of the human condition and the present-day world. To introduce such minds to our schoolchildren would in the Irish case be offensively anti-cultural; simply too much against the grain to be practically possible.
Dr DESMOND FENNELL,
Dublin 4.